Digital Society terms in Concepts

Adjusting to new conditions in order to survive or keep working, usually by a person, organisation or community responding to a change it did not start.

The capacity of individuals or groups to act independently and make their own choices, even within structures that limit what they can do.

Laws that protect competition in markets by banning cartels, blocking harmful mergers and stopping dominant companies from abusing their position. In the EU it is usually called competition law.

The creation of new artistic forms, techniques, styles or ideas, often by using new technologies or by combining existing forms in new ways.

A graphical representation of a user in a digital environment, such as a character in a game, a figure in a chat app or a 3D body in virtual reality.

The small group of very large technology companies, usually Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft, that dominate many digital markets and hold great economic and political influence.

The measurement of unique physical or behavioural characteristics, such as fingerprints, iris patterns, facial features or voice, to identify or verify a person automatically.

A failure in one part of an interdependent system that triggers failures in other parts, which in turn trigger further failures, so that the damage spreads well beyond the original fault.

A diagram that shows cause-and-effect links between the elements of a system with arrows, and marks each feedback loop as reinforcing (R) or balancing (B).

The evolution, transformation, adaptation or movement of something, such as a technology, practice, organisation, belief or value, from one form, state or value to another over time.

The discouragement of lawful expression or activity across a population because people fear surveillance, punishment or harassment, even when no one has acted against them directly.

A written set of principles and standards of conduct adopted by a profession or organisation to guide its members' decisions, such as the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct for computing professionals.

A family of ethical frameworks that judge an action only by its results, so the right action is the one with the best overall consequences. Utilitarianism is the best-known form.

The monitoring of user-generated content on a platform and the removal, labelling, demotion or restriction of content that breaks the platform's rules or the law.

The merging of several distinct audiences, such as family, friends, teachers and employers, into one audience on social media, which makes it hard to present the identity that suits each of them.

The persistence of established practices, ideas, structures or values through a period of change, such as the QWERTY keyboard layout surviving on touchscreens.

The interconnected virtual environment created by computer networks, especially the internet, often imagined as a single space separate from the physical world.

A user interface design that deliberately manipulates or deceives users into choices that benefit the company rather than themselves, such as agreeing to data collection or a subscription that is hard to cancel.

A legal requirement that data about a country's citizens or activities be stored, and sometimes processed, on servers located inside that country.

An ethical framework, associated with Immanuel Kant, that judges actions by whether they respect moral duties and rules, such as honesty or respect for persons, rather than by their consequences.

A theory developed by Everett Rogers in 1962 that explains how, why and how fast new ideas and technologies spread through a population, dividing adopters into innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.

A boundary in virtual space, usually linked to a physical territory, where access to content, services or data changes because of the location of a user, a server or the data itself.

The branch of ethics that examines the moral questions raised by the design, use and governance of digital systems, such as privacy, fairness, accountability and the treatment of users.

The record of data a person leaves through their use of digital systems, including what they share on purpose (an active footprint) and what is collected about them, often without their awareness (a passive footprint), such as location data and browsing history.

The information about a person, group or organisation that exists in digital systems, including both the identity they present online and the attributes and credentials that systems use to recognise and verify them.

A European Union law, applied from 2023, that names the largest platforms as gatekeepers and sets them rules in advance, such as bans on self-preferencing, with fines of up to 10% of worldwide turnover.

The ability of a state or region to control the digital systems, data and infrastructure used within its territory, and to make and enforce its own rules for them.

Telling a story with digital tools and media, often combining text, image, sound and video, and sometimes letting the audience shape or add to the story.

A virtual model of a real object, system or person that is continuously updated with data from its real counterpart, so that its behaviour can be monitored, simulated or predicted.

A break with established ways of understanding or doing things, after which the old way no longer works or is abandoned.

A person or organisation among the first to take up an innovation after the innovators, often respected by others and therefore influential in its wider spread.

Any part of a system that can be identified on its own, whether physical (a server), digital (code or data) or human (a user, designer or regulator).

The appearance of properties or patterns in a system as a whole that arise from interactions between its elements and cannot be found in, or easily predicted from, any single element.

A process through which people or groups gain more control over their own lives and more ability to influence decisions that affect them, for example by gaining access to information, tools or networks.

A systematic approach to deciding what is right, based on a central principle such as maximising good outcomes, following duties or respecting rights, which can be applied to new situations.

The systematic study of what is right and wrong, good and bad, and of the reasons for those judgements; also, a set of principles that guides the conduct of a person, group or profession.

An ethical framework, developed by thinkers such as Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings, that places relationships and responsibility for others, especially vulnerable or dependent people, at the centre of moral decisions.

Gradual, step-by-step change in which each version builds on the one before, such as yearly improvements to smartphone cameras and batteries.

The act, process or product of representing ideas, emotions or experiences in a form that others can perceive, using one or more modes and media.

A chain of cause and effect in which the output of a system returns as an input and changes the system's later behaviour.

The movement of digital data between devices, servers and networks, including across national borders, along physical routes such as cables and through wireless links.

Using past and present evidence, such as events, patterns and trends, to estimate what is likely to happen in the future, for example by extending trends, consulting experts or building scenarios.

The right to hold opinions and to seek, receive and share information and ideas through any medium without interference from the state, subject only to limits set by law that are necessary to protect the rights or reputations of others, national security, public order, public health or morals.

A framework used in futures studies that shows the range of possible, plausible, probable and preferable futures widening the further ahead one looks from the present.

The systematic study of possible, probable and preferable futures, using methods such as trend analysis, expert panels and scenarios to help people prepare for and shape what may happen.

An organisation that controls an important point of access between businesses and users, such as a search engine or app store. Under the EU Digital Markets Act it is also a legal status given to very large platforms, which must follow extra rules.

Restricting access to online content or services according to the user's geographic location, usually detected from the IP address of their device.

Setting up a virtual boundary around a real-world area so that a digital system responds, for example by sending an alert or blocking an action, when a device enters, leaves or stays in that area.

A set of shared values associated with early computer hacker culture, described by Steven Levy in 1984, including free access to computers and information, distrust of central authority, and judging people by their skill rather than their status.

The ability of a state or organisation to get what it wants through force or payment, such as military action, sanctions or economic pressure.

Using a shared hashtag on social media to draw attention to a political or social cause, connect people who support it and put pressure on those with power.

Expression that attacks, insults or encourages hostility towards a person or group because of an identity characteristic such as ethnicity, religion, nationality, gender, sexuality or disability.

A model introduced by the research company Gartner in 1995 describing how expectations about a new technology rise to a peak, fall into disillusionment, and then recover to a more realistic level of use.

The characteristics, roles, group memberships and records by which a person, group or organisation is recognised, both by itself and by others. It works at personal, group and institutional levels and changes over time and with context.

The process of confirming that a person is who they claim to be, by checking their claimed identity against trusted evidence such as an official document, a database record or a biometric sample.

The process of turning a new idea into a product, service or method that people actually use; an invention becomes an innovation only when it is adopted.

A simple model of a system in which inputs enter the system, processes inside it transform them, and outputs leave it.

A relationship in which elements of a system rely on one another to function, so that a change or failure in one affects the others.

The idea that aspects of a person's identity, such as gender, race, class, religion and sexuality, combine and interact, creating specific experiences of privilege or discrimination that cannot be understood by looking at any one aspect alone.

The core part of an operating system that controls a computer's memory, processor and hardware; software running in the kernel has full access to the machine, so an error there can crash the whole computer.

When a country or community skips a stage of technological development and moves directly to a newer technology, such as adopting mobile phones without first building a network of fixed telephone lines.

A type of sign or resource used to make meaning, such as written text, speech, image, moving image, sound or gesture. A single medium, such as a TikTok video, often combines several modes.

A simplified representation of a system, such as a diagram, map, equation or simulation, that shows selected elements and relationships in order to explain, predict or communicate how the system behaves.

A market in which one company is the only supplier, or so dominant that it faces little effective competition and can set prices or terms for others.

A being that can understand right and wrong, choose how to act and be held responsible for its choices; adult humans are moral agents, while current robots and AI systems are not.

The view that moral judgements are true or false only relative to a particular culture, community or person, so that no single set of values applies to everyone. It contrasts with moral universalism, which holds that some principles apply to all people.

The beliefs and practices about right and wrong that a person or community actually holds. Ethics is the systematic study of these beliefs and the reasons behind them.

A form of change in which people, things or values shift position, location or level, such as users moving from one platform to another or a price rising or falling.

Feedback that counteracts a change and pushes a system back towards a target or balance, as a thermostat or surge pricing does.

The identity a person builds and displays through their online activity, such as profiles, usernames, posts and avatars, which may differ across platforms and from their offline identity.

A culture in which ordinary people do not only consume media but also create and share their own, with low barriers to taking part and support from a community of other creators.

A constructed character or public image that a person or organisation adopts for a particular audience, such as a VTuber's animated character or a computer-generated influencer.

The material world of land, bodies, buildings, roads and objects, in which location and distance can be measured.

A specific location that people have given meaning to through experience, use, memory or identity, such as a home, a school, a city or a long-running online community.

The influence a digital platform gains by sitting between large groups of users, such as buyers and sellers or users and advertisers, and controlling the rules, data and algorithms that govern how they connect.

Feedback that amplifies a change, so that the system moves further in the same direction; 'positive' describes the direction of the loop, not whether the outcome is good.

The capacity of a person or group to influence or control the actions, choices or beliefs of others, whether by force, rules, rewards, persuasion or by shaping the options available to them.

An approach in which the protection of personal data is built into a digital system from the start and set as the default, rather than added afterwards or left for users to switch on; required in the EU by Article 25 of the GDPR.

Change that is judged to make things better according to particular values, such as wealth, health, knowledge, freedom or fairness; it is a value judgement rather than a measurement.

Acting online under a consistent name that is not one's legal name, so that actions link to one identity with a reputation while the person's legal identity stays hidden.

The difficulty of deciding who is morally or legally responsible when an autonomous system causes harm, because no single human directly chose the harmful action.

An ethical framework that judges actions by whether they respect the rights every person holds, such as privacy or free expression, which may not be overridden simply to benefit others.

The level or size of the area at which a space, process or impact is studied, such as local, regional, national, global or virtual.

An interdisciplinary field that studies how science and technology are shaped by society, and how they in turn shape society, by examining designers, users, companies and governments.

Choosing not to express an idea, opinion or experience, or changing how it is expressed, because of fear of negative consequences from the state, an employer, a platform or other people.

The practice of a platform giving its own products or services better treatment than those of rival businesses that depend on it, for example by ranking them higher or displaying them more prominently.

The process of managing how others see a person by choosing what to show, hide or emphasise, for example through profile photos, bios and the posts they share.

An element of a system whose failure causes the whole system to stop working, because no other element can take over its function.

The view that technologies are designed, chosen and used by people, so that their form and effects depend on economic interests, laws, culture and users' choices, with society and technology shaping each other.

A system in which people, social structures and technology are so closely interconnected that neither the social nor the technical part can be understood or changed without the other.

The ability of a state or organisation to get what it wants through attraction and persuasion, such as its culture, values and reputation, rather than through force or payment.

The extent in which people, objects and information are located, arranged, connected and move, including the ways people organise, represent and give meaning to it.

A term from the sociologist Manuel Castells for the networks of data, money, goods and people that link distant places in real time, which he argued now organise economic and political power.

An inequality in access to, or use of, digital systems between places, such as between urban and rural areas, between regions of a country or between countries.

Power that is built into the rules, institutions, organisations and systems within which people act, so that it shapes their choices without any single person having to give an order.

Shoshana Zuboff's term for an economic system in which companies collect data about people's behaviour, use it to predict and influence what they will do, and sell those predictions, mainly to advertisers.

A set of interacting, interdependent or interconnected elements that are organised so that, together, they produce a particular pattern of behaviour or achieve a purpose.

The line, chosen by the person studying a system, that separates the elements treated as part of the system from its environment.

An approach that studies the relationships, flows and feedback between the elements of a system, and between the system and its environment, in order to understand and predict the behaviour of the whole rather than of each part separately.

The view that technology develops according to its own logic and is the main cause of social and cultural change, so that society adjusts to new technologies rather than shaping them.

A cluster of related innovations that spreads through the economy and society and changes how people produce, communicate and live over several decades, such as the age of information and telecommunications that began with the microprocessor.

A property of a system in which elements are linked so closely and act so quickly on each other that there is little slack or time to stop a fault from spreading.

The process by which faster transport and communication technologies reduce the time needed to move people, goods or information across space, making distant places feel closer.

A change in the basic form, structure or function of something, so that it works in a fundamentally different way from before.

A thought experiment in which a person must choose whether to divert a runaway vehicle so that it kills fewer people, used to test intuitions about consequences, duties and the difference between causing and allowing harm; often applied to autonomous vehicles.

An outcome of an action or change that its designers or decision-makers did not intend and often did not foresee; it may be beneficial, harmful, or the opposite of what was intended.

A consequentialist framework, associated with Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, holding that the right action is the one that produces the greatest total well-being for everyone affected, with each person's well-being counting equally.

An approach to designing technology, developed by Batya Friedman and colleagues, that identifies the human values at stake and the direct and indirect stakeholders from the start, and builds support for those values into the system through conceptual, empirical and technical investigations.

Beliefs held by a person or group about what is important, desirable or worth protecting, such as privacy, safety, equality or freedom, which guide their choices and judgements. Values can be personal, shared by a group, collective across a society, or professional.

A space generated by digital systems in which people can interact, communicate or act, such as a platform, an online game or a virtual reality environment.

An ethical framework, going back to Aristotle, that focuses on the character of the person acting, holding that the right action is what a person of good character, with virtues such as honesty and compassion, would do.

Creating a detailed imaginary world with its own places, history, rules and inhabitants, in which stories, games or other works can be set.